Sin of a Family (2011)

Superficial and tonally inconsistent

"Washed-up detective becomes less washed-up by being put on an emotionally complex case" => if that's your thing, go watch any of the hundreds of other movies that have this theme.

The comedic beats try to make the movie not as heavy but just end up sounding tonally inconsistent.

The central plot is around the murder of an autistic child. It turns out both his parents think his life is not worth living and he'd be better off dead. He is murdered by his mother, who worries about what will happen to him after her death. Parallels are drawn with the elderly father of one of the detectives, who has severe dementia and who is also considered better off dead.

In an interview the director says he didn't want to make it about who did it but about why the child ended up murdered. But in the end the movie remains about finding who the killer was. And the why appears to be "because he was autistic and from a poor family". Autism is introduced as a theme but is not actually engaged meaningfully.

Also the whole scene with the landlord guy is homophobic as hell for no reason.

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